Stephen Northup

Stephen Northup (roughly 1630 – after 1687) was an early settler of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and built what may be the oldest house still standing in Rhode Island. Northup was a fairly early settler of Providence in the Rhode Island colony, but accounts claiming that he settled the area with Roger Williams are inaccurate, since Northup was an infant or child when Williams first came to Providence in the spring of 1636. Northup lived in Providence from 1655 to 1666, after which he moved to the Narragansett country (what is now North Kingstown, Rhode Island), which land was claimed by both the Rhode Island and Connecticut colonies. He may have owned or operated a grist mill, and is credited with building a house that still stands and is used as a private residence. Northup was married, had six known children, and lived until at least 1687, when he was taxed. He was the great grandfather of Capt. Henry Northup who left Rhode Island to settle in Hoosick, New York, and took his slave Mintus who was manumitted in 1797. Mintus assumed the surname Northup, and had a free-born son, Solomon Northup, the subject of the Academy Award-winning film 12 Years a Slave. Providence The origins of Stephen Northup are unknown. Published sources are silent as to his provenance, but online sources have offered two possibilities. One is that he was born in 1633 as the son of Hampton Northup of Flintshire, Wales. The other is that he was born in 1625, the son of Henry Northup of Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, England. Though there is no marriage record, and the name of his wife does not appear in any public record, online sources indicate that Northup married about 1654 Elizabeth Harrington, the daughter of Benjamin Harrington, and genealogist Virginia Chappell also says that his wife was a daughter of Benjamin Harrington. Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island does not show a Benjamin Harrington, but does show a Benjamin Hearnden with wife Elizabeth and nine children, but no daughter Elizabeth. As it turns out, these two Benjamins are the same person, and though the name of the family in the early records favors "Hearnden", most descendants use the name "Harrington" or "Herrington" with a few other intermediate spelling variants such as "Herrendine" or "Herrendeen". Despite no record showing Northup's wife to be a Hearnden/Harrington, there is a connection between the two families that is significant.